New Origins, a San Diego-area business that had intended to operate a cannabis dispensary, is suing the city of La Mesa for reversing a decision to grant a retail license to the business. Just one month after the La Mesa Planning Commission approved the retail license for New Origins in March 2018, its license was revoked.
Following a unanimous decision to award New Origins with its retail license, the San Diego Center for Children filed an appeal in April. The Center cited the fact that the dispensary would be operating within 1,000 feet of a “minor-oriented facility,” a rule contained within the voter-approved Proposition U that legalized medical cannabis sales in 2016. (According to the lawsuit, the San Diego Center for Children did not voice objections to the dispensary’s application during the earlier Planning Commission hearings.)
In subsequent communications, however, the precise nature of the San Diego Center for Children grew less clear. The Center itself submitted in a follow-up filing that it was an “after-school program.” La Mesa’s Community Development Department countered that the center “did not fit the definition of a minor-oriented facility.”
According to the San Diego Center for Children’s website, the organization is based 11 miles away in Linda Vista. It does list a location for what it calls a “family wellness center” in the same building as New Origins. The two companies would share a parking lot.
On April 24, though, City Council weighed in and upheld the Center’s appeal, stating that the San Diego Children Center constituted an “after-school program where the primary use is devoted to people under the age of eighteen.”
Later, City Councilman Bill Baber told the San Diego Union-Tribune, “[The San Diego Center for Children has] a contract with eight schools in La Mesa Spring Valley. When you read Prop. U, it speaks to any after-school program and therefore minor-oriented facilities. Voters understand that if you want to open a medical marijuana collective, it would not be in places where children are likely to go. San Diego Center for Children is probably a place where children will be centered.”
In its lawsuit, filed July 23, New Origins’ owners assert that the appeal process went astray of local ordinances mandating that evidence be presented during a formal City Council hearing. “The findings did not specify why the Center’s existence as a minor-oriented facility required that the Center’s appeal be upheld,” New Origins’ attorneys wrote. “They failed to adequately explain the analytical process by which the City Council determined the Center constituted a minor-oriented facility and, more specifically, an after-school program.”
Shortly after the appeal was upheld, New Origins issued a statement: “The La Mesa City Attorney and Development Staff reviewed the services provided by the Family Wellness Center and determined it didn’t qualify as a minor-oriented facility. Throughout the 15-month long application process the issue was never raised. So, I am extremely disappointed that the City Council failed to investigate the matter further considering they were going against City Staff, the Planning Commission recommendation, and the voters of La Mesa. Instead, they made a quick decision based on optics and public comment rather than a detailed review of the facts.”
No hearings have been scheduled in this civil case, as of Aug. 1.
Top photo courtesy of Adobe Stock
